Using Proformas and Object Oriented Techniques to

Unless an operational system has been developed and maintained under strict configuration control it is likely that the cost of software maintenance will be very high. This high cost can be largely attributed to the costs incurred in identifying and understanding the parts of a system potentially affected by proposed maintenance changes. In large legacy systems the process of identification and understanding is greatly compounded by several time-related factors which act individually or in combination to precipitate a `loss of control' of the system. These factors include: ffl Increased component and relationship complexity over time ffl Systems version explosion ffl Lack or loss of useful documentation ffl Personnel changes ffl Maintenance induced errors It follows that if such systems are to be effectively maintained there is a need to regain control of the system and to minimise the time spent trying to understand and identify parts of the system affected by a change. Software Configuration Management (SCM) is a discipline for controlling the evolution of complex software systems with the effect of successfully reducing costs for systems under development. This discipline may also be applied during the maintenance process if a software/system configuration is already known. Therefore, in order to address these `out of control' legacy systems there is a very great need to reidentify the existent (but often corrupted) configuration. In order to achieve this, Inverse Software Configuration Management (ISCM)[1], defined as `the process of bringing existing (operational systems) under configuration control', has been developed to place particular emphasis on the re-identification of software/system configurations